University at Albany’s School of Public Health Names Nova Panebianco As
Axelrod Fellowship Winner

Contact: Christine McKnight, 518-442-3091, or
John Conway, 402-0281

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Nova L. Panebianco, who
helped organize a post-graduate medical anthropology study project in Mongolia
last summer, has been named the 1999-2000 winner of the David Axelrod Fellowship
at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health.

She is the fifth winner of the prestigious award,
which is the most generous offered at the School of Public Health, and
is made possible by private contributions.

“We are delighted to welcome Ms. Panebianco to
the School of Public Health and to the distinguished roster of Axelrod
Fellows,” said interim Dean John Conway, Ph.D. “Previous Fellows
have made important contributions to the school and we look forward to
working with Nova in the coming year.”

The School of Public Health is a unique institution
offering students the academic strength of a major research university
and real-time, real-life exposure to public health practice, through professors
who hold important positions at the Department of Health. These
officials are actively engaged in a wide variety of public health problems,
including the current E.coli outbreak and toxic waste emergencies, as well
as chronic problems such as teen pregnancy, smoking, AIDS, cancer, and
health care quality improvement.

The Axelrod Fellowship won by Panebianco is named
for the late State Health Commissioner who served in that post from 1979
to 1991, and was nationally known for his leadership on a wide variety
of public health issues.

Panebianco, from Southampton, Long Island, is
a Binghamton University graduate who is pursuing a Master’s of Public Health
degree, and subsequently plans on attending medical school. She is
interested in international health issues, and in linking the public health
emphasis on disease prevention with medical work. Her study in Mongolia,
a vast and sparsely populated nation with extremely limited access to health
care services, focused on the Mongolian equivalent of stress, and its relationship
to the onset of disease. As an undergraduate, she also participated
in anthropology field research in Nepal.

The Axelrod award is among the most generous offered
for master’s degree candidates; it consists of a $12,000 stipend and full
tuition scholarship for the first year of what is normally a two-year study
program. Second-year public health students working on master's degrees
are often funded in their internships.

The Axelrod Fellowship was established in 1995,
with funds raised specifically to honor the former commissioner’s record
of service and public health innovation. Dr. Axelrod, a native of
Great Barrington, MA, graduated from Harvard Medical College and was a
virology researcher at the National Institutes of Health before coming
to Albany to establish a new laboratory division in the Health Department.

The School of Public Health, was founded in 1985
through the efforts of Dr. Axelrod and then University President Vincent
O’Leary to take advantage of the proximity of the nation's premier state
health department, with its world renowned Wadsworth Center laboratories,
and the University at Albany, a nationally recognized public research university.